Encounter with Mr. Amitji's official blog 'srbachchan'

Last night I was eagerly awaiting for the dawn without falling asleep. The reason being, everyone’s old pal ‘Pain’ was giving me a company. Instead of it ruling over my mind, I decided to do the opposite. I tried to ignore it that’s when I came across the blog that Mr. Amitji maintains and updates daily. I guess, yesterday I was first amongst all readers of his latest blog. 2.22 AM

First glance made me go through the blog in details. Common tendency in humans, we enjoy knowing more about celebrity and their personal lives. With the same thought I visited his blog. I kept on reading older and older posts. I do not remember when did I stop imagining him as an Actor but more of a writer while reading his posts. His writing, for sure must have inspired many lives and will keep on.

I am sure 9 out of 10 readers will get addicted to his blog. His writing made me turn towards his fathers creation, putting on efforts to read and pass on.

I checked out per day comments on his every single post and being from a software technology domain, I can’t stop thinking that one day guys at Tumblr may have to rebuild a new data base due to size limitations, jk.

A Happy Moment!

A Happy moment…

I was on my way to the grocery store on my bicycle. I usually see teenagers or some mom with the kids in strollers or some men returning from work to home. But today I got to see two faces from my country. Faces which are similar to mine. The skin tone, the features all were same. I see similar faces from my land daily but the surprising thing about these old faces were that they were wearing my land’s traditional dresses. The old man was wearing a ‘Dhoti’. Attire which I used to see my grandpa wearing all the time as I was growing up since being a kid till the time I was with him. That moment made me remind all the beautiful time I had with my entire family…my mother, my father, my grandparents and my sister. As I passed him on the road he looked at me and gave me a beautiful smile as if I was related to him. I really can’t find words to express how I felt seeing my lands culture in this foreign country. I was so proud of my own country, its culture. I loved it. I felt so close to my country. Few feet ahead his better half was leading the way, stopping often to look back and just check her husband is keeping the pace. I wanted to stop and talk to them and invite them to my place as I would do to my grandparents. Talk to them about things back home; listen to their past experience which is thrilling at times. But I think I have missed the moment. I am still hopeful to see them again and this time I am not going to lose the chance.

    

Hope! Sometimes its good to give it up!

Its weird but recently felt like...Sometimes its good to give up hope.
Yes....
imagine...There is a door which is wide open. I am hoping (expecting) stars to enter from the door. I see no stars. But good I did not loose hope.. still expecting stars. Days, months passed by,and I am still hoping stars. Finally a day came when I gave up all my hopes of getting any star. I was not expecting it any more.
Then I realized even though I did not get what I wanted but many things did enter from the open door to which I did not give a damn attention. These many other things might be equally good like the stars which I was hoping to get. If I had not been so concerned only about stars I could have got anything equally good. So strangely I felt..sometimes let your hope go away...you will find some room in your brain for some new expectations, new dreams, new hopes!

Vijaya Dashmi - Dasara

As a child, I used to spend this day doing lot of activities my parents used to tell me to do. Today I made an attempt to think over the reasons behind each and every activity.


I still vivdly remember my first bicycle bought on this day. And lot of cribbing done by me to get it earlier than Vijayadashmi. But my parents insisted to buy on the day of Vijayadashmi. The reason behind buying on Vijayadashmi was - this day is considered as one of the 3 1/2 auspicious days called as (Sadeteen shubha muhurta). Hindus prefer these days to start any new activity like buying a vehicle, a house, ornaments and any valuables in their life.


The day used to start by decorating the house with garlands made of marigold flowers and mango leaves called as "Toran" in Marathi. Garlands were made for decorating our vehicles too. My mother used to get up early and prepare sweets for us. We used to wash our car and it was fun washing it with my sis and dad. We used to put 'tilak' on the Vehicle and put the garland in the front. The good thing was all of our neighbours used to be there in the parking and we used to have lot of fun. Late in the evening all the vehicles used to shine along with flowers adding to the beauty of each vehicle. It used to feel that if any vehicle is not having the flower garland, it would feel ashamed staying in the parking.


Another good thing I remember about this day and like the most was, my mom used to ask us for one pen, a book, a pencil from either of us. I used to fight with my sister as I wanted to give only my stuff. But finally mom used to accept one each of the items from both of us. The secret behind the fight was, I purposely wanted to give my homework book to my mom to keep in the puja, so that I could get a reason for not studying. I used to purposely ask my mom, "Mom, my pen is in the puja, should I take it?" and mom used to shout back at me saying,"don't touch it!!". I used to feel happy from bottom of my heart. :)


The reason behind worshiping pen, pencil, books, vehicles, a knife on this day is, the Pandavas completed their AgnayatVas and regained their identity on this day. They took back their hidden weapons from the Shami tree. To mark this day we have a tradition of worshiping the weapons.


In the evening all of us used to put on new dress and go to cross city limits which is called as 'Seemolanghan - crossing the boundaries'. The city limit was a bit far away and we used to cross steep roads through valleys. On the way back home we used to stop at a tree called 'Aptya che zahad'. We used to pluck some of its leaves and take back home. I used to compete with my sister as to who had more no of leaves and my parents called it as 'Sonya chi pan' (leaves of Gold). On the way back home we used to go to our grand parent's house to give them the leaves and take their blessings. In return being a kid we used to get sweets. My sis and I used to collect them from all houses which we used to visit on way back home and used to compare how much each had in her bag which obviously used to transform into a friendly fight.


The reason behind crossing the city limits (Seemolanghan) is, Vijaya Dashmi was chosen as the day to cross the border and start the war against the neighbouring kingdoms.
The tradition behind exchanging Aptya chi pan is based on the Kautsa's Gurudakshina Story - Kautsa disciple of Guru Varatantu, had promised him to give gold coins as guru dakshina. So he went to King Raghu requesting him to help keep the promise. King Raghu asked God Indra who in turn asked God Kuber (God of wealth) for the gold coins. God Kuber showered the gold coins on the Apta trees near the King Raghu's Ayodhya city. Based on this story we still exchange the leaves of the Apta tree on this day.

Some of the social groups in the neighbourhood used to get busy in building a replica of Ravan. At night this replica used to be set on fire. It used to be pleasant as those days in October used to be bit cold and the heat from the fire used to give us warmth. Back at home I used to ask my mom why do we set the replica on fire. She used to tell me, on this day Shri Ram defeating Ravan. By setting the replica of Ravan on fire we actually kill the 10 bad qualities, which are represented by ten heads of Ravana as follows: (1) Kama vasana (Lust), (2) Krodha (Anger), (3) Moha (delusoion), (4) Lobha (Greed), (5) Mada (Over Pride), (6) Matsara (Jealousy), (7) Durmana (Nevative Mind), (8)  Durbuddhi ( Bad Intellect), (9) Duschitta (Bad will) and (10) Ahankara (Ego).


Listening to stories of Ram and Raavan my Sis and I used to go to bed cherishing the day in our memories. Later in life I came to know the deep down meaning of each activity we did on that day. Even today I still do it and will definitely pass it to my next generations, not letting die the invaluable tradition.


I request you all reading the blog to do the same with me...